1b.Approach (from AD-416)
Improved management of dairy farms requires successful management of nutrient flows, both to maximize nutrient use by animals and crops in order to optimize profit, and to minimize nutrient loss to the environment in order to optimize sustainability. This SCA will continue to monitor long-term cropping systems trials (established 1990) that include three grain- and three forage-production systems. Of particular interest in this study, which includes the use of animal manures, is the comprehensive performance of these production systems. Specifically, participating scientists are not only interested in traditional agronomic measures of forage and grain production, but also in long-term P and K nutrient budgets, N leaching losses, and soil organic C dynamics. Another aspect of these studies seeks to develop conventional and organic crop-management strategies to facilitate the exchange of N, P, and K as manure and feed between neighboring dairy and cash-grain farms. This will be accomplished via on-station and on-farm trials. Finally, a grass ley concept that provides sites for summer manure applications onto perennial-forage sods will be evaluated in replicated plot trials, as well as through assessment of voluntary intake by replacement dairy heifers.

3.Progress Report

The second year of the project has retained a focus on data collection. Soil samples continue to be collected for soil organic carbon and other analyses. Data were collected from on-station research trials. Interviews with manure haulers conducted during the previous year to complete budgets estimating the value of manure in corn-based operations were summarized. Other data were summarized from a project evaluating a grass ley as a reception site for summer manure applications; this includes a voluntary intake assessment of manured and commercially fertilized grasses with replacement dairy heifers. One refereed journal article was published from this work. The ADODR monitored this SCA by regular phone or in-person communication with UW personnel, and by direct participation in some of the studies conducted.